


One Hell of a Trip

by I_Ship_Morethan_The_Average_B3ar



Category: Rush Hour (TV 2016)
Genre: Blood, Drugs, Gangs, Human trafficing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Make up sex, Misunderstandings, angst- lots of it, idk what im doing, lee/carter - Freeform, probably a load of hurt/comfort, probably smut somewhere, upset, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-16 07:11:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7257688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Ship_Morethan_The_Average_B3ar/pseuds/I_Ship_Morethan_The_Average_B3ar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And that's why only Didi would ever know how selfless the next words to leave Lee’s mouth truly were.</p><p>“I don’t want to be your partner anymore.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Lee has always been recognised for his amazing police work that was impossible to beat. He’d gained a lot of respect and many supporters but he had also gained many enemies. Dangerous enemies. In an odd incident, a British smuggling gang Lee had managed to drive out of Hong Kong manage to find him and take both him and Carter hostage. Lee manages to get them both out unscathed. 

They’re intact physically but Carter feels their bond is broken as the Asian detective had managed to keep so much of his past a secret.  
Lee understands his partner’s agitation and decides to cut their relationship off right there and then, in Didi’s kitchen as she bandages him up. Carter eaves in a flurry of aggravation and upset and Lee is left to pick up the pieces of his life that may cause any harm to the small yet significant family he had found during his first few days working for the LAPD. 

He shows up to work but him and Carter refuse to share anything but dirty looks. This is until Lee goes missing without so much as a phone call and the whole of his department decide they need to find him. While searching, Didi lets Carter in on a few secrets Lee had shared with her. Carter suddenly understands and his urge to find his friend becomes more than just duty. 

They search and search but find no trace, so Lee showing up battered and completely out of it is slightly suspicious. They let him in anyway, seeing as it is only Didi and Carter there working overtime. This leads to the second hostage situation of the year. 

With Lee almost completely useless, what will the trio do against twenty-thirty British thugs sporting guns and baseball bats?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secrets are dangerous.

“Come on, man. This is the worst idea you’ve had yet.” Carter was complaining again. He seemed to do a lot of that while him and Lee were out in the field. It was annoying sometimes but Lee was beginning to accept it as one of the LA cop’s quirks.

“Really?” Lee asked, not paying too much attention to what his partner was saying. He was too focused on checking rooftops for hidden gunmen or just people in general.

“Yeah. It is by far the dumbest thing you’ve pulled me into.” Carter’s tone was one that should have registered as rude.

“That’s what you said yesterday-“ he delivered the words in his usual monotonous voice, still distracted- “and the day before that. You said those exact words twice in a row on Saturday.”

Carter opened his mouth to say something but stopped, making a slightly winded noise before shutting his mouth and shaking his head. Lee noticed the look of disapproval that the slightly smaller male sent his way and rolled his eyes. The action was a bad habit he’d picked up; James Carter was a bad influence on Le and they both knew it.

The silence lasted for about two minutes. It gave Lee enough time to figure out what exactly they were doing. They’d been chasing down a lead to a drugs smuggling crime that had taken them back to an abandoned motel. They were currently ducked behind some dumpsters because the place was obviously, and illegally, occupied. There were obvious signs that everyone in the motel were packing up and getting ready to leave. That left the two cops in a situation they found themselves in almost every other day.

Wait for back-up or go in on their own.

“Look, Lee, I don’t doubt that you wouldn’t be able to work your ninja magic -“ Carter started but was interrupted by an exasperated sigh.

“Japanese. Ninjas are Japanese,” Lee stated.

“Anyhow. All I’m saying is that I don’t doubt your ability but the most people I’ve seen you take down is like thirteen and there are at least thirty armed guys in there. That’s over double your capacity of badassery.” Carter took a quick peek over the edge of the dumpster. He was right about how many people were inside. He just knew he was.

“More than double? Barely. By four, Carter. Pull your weight and we’ll win easily.”

The very uncharacteristic and snarky comment from the cop went unchallenged because there was a blunt object colliding with the backs of both Lee’s and Carter’s heads. There was blinding hot pain and then they were both out for the count.

\----------------------

Lee groaned as he opened his eyes. The first thing that his mind focused on was the shooting pain from the back of his skull, sending unpleasant jolts through his body as he moved. He noticed the he could feel warmth where the pain was, cold air brushing against the back of his head and letting him know that there was a kind of sticky wetness there- blood.

His vision was blurry but it was slowly beginning to focus. Lee forced himself to turn his head and look at his surroundings. They were inside of a building that was definitely not going to get any five star ratings. The windows were grimy and the floor was covered in dust, dirt and something that looked rather like dog crap. Lee wrinkled his nose at the thought and moved his eyes away.

As his senses began to comply again, he realised he was tied to a chair. He could feel something warm and oddly soft but solid against his back. It took a moment to realise that the warm, soft, solid thing was his unconscious partner. At least he was still alive. From what Lee could hear and feel, the smaller man’s breathing wasn’t laboured or shallow. He’d be fine.

“Well, well, well.” A British voice sounded from behind Lee. The voice was strange. It wasn’t exactly fear inspiring but it wasn’t comforting either. It was slightly hoarse and rather high pitched, as if someone who had chain-smoked continuously for years had taken a lungful of helium. Lee definitely recognised it.

“Mr Cooper.” Lee greeted, his voice oddly thick. He tagged that down to the fact he’d been unconscious until about ten seconds ago.

“It’s nice to know you remember the people you permanently scar.” The voice was followed by footsteps and then Sean Cooper, leader of a drug smuggling gang that Lee had single headedly driven out of Hong Kong, was stood in front of him.

Sean Cooper wasn’t exactly the type of person anyone would expect to lead a dangerous gang and the name of the gang wasn’t exactly the kind of name anyone would associate with so much violence; the Blue Chain gang. The name had come from the mind of Cooper when he was seventeen and just an opportunistic teenager living in Erith, London. It definitely showed. The name was somewhat ridiculous but the gang was one of the most ruthless gangs Lee had seen.

Cooper himself was still very young. Twenty-two and a bit. He was tall and lanky, blond hair always greasy and sticking to his permanently sweaty forehead. He wasn’t very impressive. His dark purple suit, with blue accessories, was too big for him and hung off of him in a very unflattering way. Cooper’s teeth lived up to the British stereotype of being disgusting. They were Tabaco stained and crooked, his gums a nasty pale pink. In the light of the motel, his gums actually looked grey and that alone made Lee feel a little bit nauseated. All in all, Cooper wasn’t an attractive man and he hadn’t changed. The only difference, Lee noticed, was the scar that ran across his right cheekbone. Lee remembered the amount of blood he’d been covered in after inflicting that wound on the gang leader.

“What are you doing here?” Lee asked instead of humouring the taller man. He was obviously looking for a god back and forth between hero and villain like the ones commonly seen in movies. Lee didn’t have time for such fantasies. They were dangerous.

“Oh? No back and forth? Do you not have time for us anymore, Jonathan?” Cooper walked over and leaned down, getting close to Lee’s face. There was an obvious spark of disappointment in his dull blue eyes when the detective didn’t flinch back. “I seem to remember you having plenty of time for one of my boys.” The comment was met with a strange noise from Carter who had finally woken up.

Lee clenched his jaw, swallowing hard. His time undercover was something he liked to keep quiet. A lot of his past was easy to hide from people but Lee was suddenly feeling very cornered and very threatened by the situation. Of course he’d be lucky enough to be faced with someone who could ruin his new reputation with a few well-chosen words in the right place.

The Blue Chain gang had been causing many problems in Hong Kong when Lee was new to the force. It was his breakthrough case. He’d spent weeks undercover, working with them and sabotaging what they were doing at the same time. Lee had taken them down from the inside and one of the gang’s members had helped him. Lee still remembered everything about Alex and he still remembered Alex taking the fall for him. That’s why he’d kept quiet. Alex’s blood was on his hands because he’d almost ruined his cover.

“Detective Carter. I’m glad you’ve finally decided to join us. I’ve been reading up on you. You’re quite impressive.” Sean snorted out a little laugh after finishing his sentence, walking around to stand in front of the American cop.

Lee felt Carter shift behind him and sighed, closing his eyes and tipping his head back slightly. He wasn’t feeling too hot and every move Carter made was shifting him as well. His head felt like it had suddenly been filled with water and every little movement sent it sloshing around his skull. It was certainly not a pleasant experience.

“Look, Doctor Who, I ain’t in the mood to do this today. Now, I suggest you let me and my partner go and surrender to us or we’ll have to bust out some seriously deadly moves.” Carter’s voice was slightly sluggish but it held its usual snark. That put Lee at ease for a millisecond but then Cooper was laughing and ruining his peace of mind.

“Oh this one is good. He’s funny. I like him. You certainly have a type when it comes to partners, ey, Lee?” Cooper snickered, walking to stand at their sides so they could both see him by turning their heads.

“I’m guessing you two know each other.” Carter said. A statement and not a question.

“Know each other? We were practically best friends a few years ago.” That statement sent an unsettling shiver through Lee’s entire being. It seemed it was true that the past always came back to bite you in the ass.

“Friends with a drug smuggler? This guy? I’m sorry but I can’t seem to fit the pieces together here. Robocop and the pimp? I don’t think so-“

“Carter…” Lee’s voice came out softer than he’d been expecting it to. It did the trick though. Carter stopped talking and craned his neck to take a look at the guilty looking person sat behind him. “It’s somewhat true. We did- we did know each other.”

“He doesn’t know?” Cooper suddenly had a sinister look of delight on his face at the confusion on Carter’s. He clapped his hands together in a rather childish show of his joy. “This has taken a turn in my favour.”

“Lee? What’s Prince Charming over there talking about?” Carter asked, voice as confident as always but obviously masking a certain level of uncertainty.

“Yeah, Lee. What am I talking about?” Cooper leant back against the wall, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it. It was obvious he wasn’t making any move to end this invisible form of torture for Lee. Admitting he’d been in a situation that had compromised most of his morals was something he never wanted to do.

“I worked a case in which I had to go undercover and work for the Blue Chain gang so I could figure out how to get them out of Hong Kong.” That was all Lee was giving. He wasn’t ready to have Carter know everything about the situation. It was embarrassing, humiliating and a little bit shocking in his eyes.

“Right. Well that don’t sound so scandalous.” Carter fell silent for a moment, realising there was something more. “But that’s not it, is it? Something happened.”

“You’re a smart on, aren’t you?” Cooper stepped in, taking a drag of the cigarette before blowing out the smoke and giving a cackling laugh. “I’ll explain in a little more detail, shall I, Lee?”

Lee gave Cooper a look that he rarely gave anyone. It held promise of exceedingly nasty things being done to the person on the receiving end. He was going to protest with his words as well as the look but Carter interrupted and simply stated that Cooper should go on. That’s what Lee had feared. This had all happened so quickly and Lee felt like he was in a terrible plotline of a badly written book. It was awful and he’d had no time to prepare. He was losing his cool.

“Well, your boy here was in with my lot for about a month and a bit. He made friends with some of my lads and didn’t seem to flag up as anything other than a hard worker. He was actually one of my best men. Him and Alex. I’d let them both in and trusted them and they helped each other take down my business. You see, Alex was one of mine but Lee managed to convince him to work with the police in order to get me thrown in jail.” Cooper paused to suck in another lungful of toxic smoke.

“Standard undercover work.” Carter said after a second of processing the information he’d been given.

“Well you’d think that, wouldn’t you? I’m sure Lee has told you many times that he stays focused and on task while working, hasn’t he?”

Carter nodded, frowning a little.

“He’s a bit of a liar. He always says he hates lying but he does it quite a bit. Him and Alex had a little fling. It was absolutely appalling. An officer of the law with a drug smuggling criminal. Just imagine that.” Cooper shook his head, laughing breathily at Lee’s annoyed expression. “And poor Alex was totally smitten. Thought the guy was real charming and followed him into anything. It was quite sweet. That’s why he took the fall. At the time, I had no clue that what I killed one of my men for was actually Lee’s fault, so I used Alex to make an example to the rest of my men. I should have caught it then. I saw Lee there. He was a lot younger then and his expressions were so much more readable. It’s almost laughable how much he’s changed.”

Lee looked away and then down at his lap, fists clenching. The story in itself wasn’t as bad as Cooper liked to play it up to be. The problem he knew Carter would have would be the lying and the secrets. The detective closed his eyes for the third time, trying to compose himself. He heard footsteps and then there was a hand in his hair, yanking his head up. Lee opened his eyes slowly, met with a smug looking Cooper.

Cooper used his free hand to take another puff of potent smoke, blowing it out so it would hit Lee directly in the face. Lee hated the smell and it made him want to gag but he refused to give Cooper any satisfaction. “I’ll leave you two ladies to have your domestic while I finish up packing. You’ve got a lot to explain to your partner, Lee.”

There was silence after that. Cooper shoved Lee’s head away, causing the room to spin out of focus for a moment, before walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. Lee knew that something was wrong because Carter didn’t speak. He didn’t say a word for five minutes. Lee counted.

“You never get distracted, huh?” Carter mumbled, sounding slightly numb but obviously pissed off.

“Carter, I-“

“What about the attractive girl you pulled over when you were a traffic cop? Was that a true story or did you just make it up to make yourself seem better than me?”

“It was true.” Lee sighed, looking around the room. They needed to get out. “I’m sorry for not telling you about this but right now we need to get out.”

He felt Carter shift, knowing out of simply knowing Carter that he had nodded. Lee didn’t like the silence from his partner. It made him feel uncomfortable.

“Do you still have your car keys in your pocket?” Lee asked after a second of tugging at the rope tying his hands behind his back.

Carter gave another nod, not saying a single word.

“Good. Is it alright if I reach in and grab them?”

Another nod.

Lee sighed, shifting as much as possible to pull the keys out of Carter’s back pocket with only two fingers. It was tricky and Carter had to lean forward but they somehow managed it. Lee moved the key into a position that made it easier for him to rub it against the rope. It was weak rope and seemed to easily ware down under the sharp edge of the key. As soon as he felt the slightest give, he used all his strength to yank his hands apart and tear the rope in two. At that moment, Cooper walked back in. He closed the door and sauntered over to the two bound cops.

“I was half expecting you to have managed to escape,” Cooper joked, cigarette hanging from between his lips. He leant down to Lee’s level and smiled. “I guess Carter wasn’t in the mood, hm? I don’t blame him. Trust is a key part of a relationship.” Cooper’s words were laced with the most annoying sense of pride and self-congratulation.

When Lee gave no answer, Cooper gave a thoughtful noise and pulled the cigarette from between his lips. He flicked the ashes at Lee’s face before putting it out against Lee’s shoulder. The sudden burn caused Lee to wince and flinch away, earning a happy little chuckle from Cooper.

“It’s been fun boys,” Cooper said as he finally straightened up with a heaving sigh. “But I’m gonna have to dispose of you now. Wouldn’t want you to ruin any more of my business.” Cooper pulled put a knife and smiled again. “I’ve been waiting so long to repay you for the lovey scar on my face.”

Cooper raised the knife and was about to bring it down but Lee kicked him hard in the chest. It forced him backwards but didn’t knock him over. That was all Lee needed though. He got up and immediately regretted the decision. His entire world became a mess of blurred shapes, a loud ringing noise and an odd sort of pain. The hit to his head had been worse than he’d first thought. This little wobble was all that Cooper needed.

There was a white hot pain that registered in Lee’s head, followed by a body colliding with his own. His vision seemed to suddenly snap back to normal and he realised that he was now pinned to the floor by Cooper. Cooper raised the knife once again but this time it was dripping red. Lee had a second to look down and see the same crimson colour staining his shirt, the cut being just above his right collarbone.

Lee raised his arms as the knife came down, catching Cooper’s wrist before the knife could reach his throat. He managed to move its path off a little but his arms couldn’t hold up the amount of weight Cooper put onto the blade. There was another burning sensation as the knife nicked at the side of his neck before Cooper was rolling off of him. Lee took that as his chance to scramble up.

Cooper looked up at him from the floor and grinned. The grin was dangerous and almost animalistic. The blond lunged forward, blade in hand, plunging his weapon deep into Lee’s calf muscle. Lee cried out but didn’t fall, kicking Cooper away with his other leg. Cooper still had his knife and was now also covered in blood. It made him look far more unhinged than before.

Sean stood up, breathing heavily but still smiling. He lunged forward again, shoving Lee back into the wall. Lee’s hand found the wrist connected to the hand that held the knife, holding on and doing everything in his power to keep it out of anything important in his body. Cooper let out a frustrated grunt as they struggled, leaning forward and closing teeth around the already injured part of Lee’s neck. Lee lost his grip and the blade sank into his bicep.

Suddenly, Cooper’s weight was fully against him and then the gang leader was sliding down his body and slumping to the ground. Carter was stood with a chair in his hands, looking majorly pissed off. It made Lee shudder but he didn’t have time to figure out why. Carter leant forward and pulled the knife out of Lee’s arm without even blinking before leading the detective to the window he’d opened while the fight had been going on. Lee had totally forgotten he’d given Carter the key to get himself out of his own bonds.

Carter helped him out of the window and back to the car, calling for any officers in the area before driving to the one place he thought would be safe enough to both fix Lee up and tear him a new one for the situation.

\----------------

They pulled up outside Didi’s house in a matter of minutes. Cooper knew they were alright to go there with Lee in the state he was in because at that moment in time there were no kids in the house. He wouldn’t want to subject any child to the sight of a bloodied up Lee or to him and his temper. Carter always came across as quite mild in his anger but this was beyond something he could ignore and he didn’t even know quite why he was so mad.

Carter helped his partner up to the house and pushed open the door. He called out for Didi and when she rushed into the hallway, the smile on her face dropped in a matter of nanoseconds.

“What the hell happened?” She asked as she ushered them both into the kitchen. She pulled out a chair and let Carter deposit the pile of limbs and blood that was Lee into it.

“This genius decided we should try and take on a gang of thirty men on our own. We got ambushed and apparently they hit his head a lot harder than they hit mine. He got his ass handed to him by a skinny, blond Sherlock Holmes.” Carter moved away from Lee and went over to the freezer to grab some ice and place it on the back of his head. He let out a sigh of relief before moving to lean against the counter.

“Right…” Didi nodded, walking over to a cupboard to grab a first aid kit. She had the things they needed because she was used to stitching up Carter after random fights that went wrong.

Since they’d entered Didi’s place, Lee’s eyes had been squeezed shut. Neither Didi or Carter had ever seen Lee so hopelessly beaten before. It was an odd sight that made both of them feel strange.

Didi shook her head after a moment of both her and Carter staring at the way Lee’s expression was contorting in varying levels of pain. Being shot wasn’t always so bad but being stabbed multiple times while suffering from a bad concussion was obviously extremely painful.

“Hey, Lee…” Didi whispered, sitting down in front of him. He responded with a soft groan but it was a response. “I need to take your shirt off. Is that alright?”

Lee nodded ever so slightly and Carter snorted. Didi shot him a questioning look but returned her attention back to Lee quite quickly. She pulled off his shirt after carefully unbuttoning it, wincing at the nasty gashes on his arm and above his collarbone. She also noticed the cut on his neck and the bite mark shaped indents around that as well as the small, circular burn on his shoulder. Lee was a mess, his chest both sweaty and sticky with blood.

Didi cleaned him up in silence, being as careful but a thorough as possible. Half way through stitching up his arm, she made Carter get Lee some aspirin and water. She managed to get that into Lee but knew it wasn’t going to do much good for anything but his headache. Once she’d finished stitching him up, she dressed his wounds and stood up to wash her hands.

She left Lee where he was because he seemed comfortable. He seemed comfortable and on the cusp of being unconscious. She walked over to Carter and leant on the counter next to him.

“What’s going on with you?” She asked softly, reaching up to pull the ice away from Carter’s head so she could have a look at the damage. There was nothing too serious so she moved his hand back. “You’ve done nothing but glare at him since you got here. Did something else happen?”

Carter sighed and nodded. He needed to let out his anger somehow and with Lee in the position he was in, it really wouldn’t be fair to do it to him. He decided that talking to Didi would probably be his best option for a little while.

\---------------

Didi had been told a lot of things about Lee. These things had been told to her by Lee himself when they were sat up late at night. Apparently living with him was enough to have him open up a little bit. Some of the things he’d confided in her with made a lot of sense now that she knew what had happened.

She had managed to calm Carter down a little and sit him down. She’d made him coffee and hey had both moved Lee into his own bed once they were sure he wasn’t going to choke on his own vomit while asleep. That would have been awful.

When Lee stumbled out of his room at around ten to eleven at night, the argument Didi had wanted to avoid was obviously beginning to boil up already. It took the exchange of a glance before Carter was slamming his cup down on the table and standing up. Lee looked rather resigned as the smaller of the two walked over to him and tried his best to square up to him. There was certain tiredness in Lee’s eyes that made it very obvious he wasn’t looking for a fight and had no energy to participate in one.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Carter started off rather calmly and Lee’s expression made it painfully clear that the evident disappointment in his partner’s voice was far worse than the anger he’d been prepared for.

“I have nothing to say other than it is my past. I’m sorry I lied about getting distracted and I’m sorry I kept secrets but I don’t see why it warrants so much hostility.” The reply was robotic. Rehearsed. It made Didi cringe.

“Warrants so much anger?” Carter’s voice was suddenly a lot louder but it trailed off into a disbelieving and rather forced laugh. It was obvious he had no rea reason to be so angry but he was determined to hold onto his rage. “The bedrock we set down was built on lies. That’s what warrants so much anger, as you put it, Terminator.”

Lee’s expression changed in a split second and neither Didi or Carter had expected such a drastic change from emotionless to overwhelming emotion.

“It was built on what you needed to know. I’m not the same person I was back then, just like you’re not the same person you were years ago. People change. I made mistakes. The only thing you should be angry about is the fact I lied about only getting distracted a woman in some car years back.” His voice was no longer calm and measured and it was a drastic change from the purposeful control Lee always held.

“You just don’t see what you’ve done wrong, do you?” Carter asked, voice loud and strangely scary. Lee didn’t flinch but his eyes did flick over to Didi for a second.

She knew what was going on in Lee’s mind and that's why only Didi would ever know how selfless the next words to leave Lee’s mouth truly were.

“I don’t want to be your partner anymore.”

Carter looked shocked and then he looked angry. He turned his head away for a moment before returning his gaze to Lee. “Fine. I’ll talk to Cole tomorrow.”

“Good.”

Carter grabbed his coat and left in a flurry of anger, slamming the door behind him. Lee glanced at Didi before nodding and turning away with his head down. He went to bed and left Didi to process what had just happened.

 

Sneak peek of next chapter-

“Don’t act like you don’t see me.” Carter growled from across his desk, leaning forward ever so slightly.

Lee didn’t look up, continuing to write down information that wasn’t really information. He didn’t want to look up at his former partner. It made his chest ache in a way he wasn’t used to feeling. The last time he’d felt anything like it was when he’d been with Alex.

“Nothing? Of course you have nothing to say.” Carter got up and walked past Lee with nothing but a dirty look. As soon as Carter was out of the room, Lee dropped his pencil to the desk, followed by his head.

“He’ll come around.” Didi offered in a comforting tone as she walked over and sat on Lee’s desk.

Lee shook his head but didn’t look up. The way Lee was acting was actually quite sad to see. He was usually so collected and could recover from anything. He seemed genuinely wounded.

Didi looked around, finding there was no one around at that moment. She reached out and placed her hand gently on the back of Lee’s head. His shoulders naturally tensed up but he relaxed as she stroked his hair. It was odd to have him react like that. It was so out of character for him. Everything about him had been thrown off kilter and Didi had no way of fixing it.

“He’s right to be angry.” Lee whispered the words to no one in particular and Didi only just caught them.

“No. No he’s not. He’s being dramatic. There’s nothing to forgive you for but I’m sure, in his mind, he’ll forgive you soon. He cares about you.” Didi frowned as Lee shook his head. The words she hoped would comfort him were doing nothing and she was running out of ideas. “Come on, Lee. Cheer up a little. You and Carter are just going through a rough patch. It’ll fix itself. Like I said before, he cares about you.”

Lee pulled away from Didi’s hand and stood up, ready to leave.

“But he doesn’t seem to realise I care about him.”


	3. Chapter 3

Lee woke up to the sound of soft music and the smell of coffee coming into his room from the kitchen. He could hear a soft voice singing along to the song he’d never heard before but it was nice. It was peaceful. Lee struggled out of his bed and followed his ears (and his nose) to find Didi cooking breakfast.

Sunlight streamed in through the large window, casting an almost dream-like glow over Didi and everything she touched. Her hair was messy but still beautiful, oil black and slightly tussled in a lopsided bun. She was wearing an oversized shirt that Lee recognised as his own. He had given it to her during a particularly hot night as she’d searched frantically for anything that didn’t have long sleeves or made her feel like she was ‘stood inside a volcano in Hell.’ Lee had forgotten he’d given her the shirt and didn’t much mind the fact she hadn’t returned it. It was one he didn’t wear very often anyway.

As the music continued to play quietly, Lee walked over and sat down, watching Didi with a fondness he’d only ever held for Kim. In this strange little family Lee had found himself in the middle of, Didi was someone he saw as a younger sister. She was smart and brave and witty and kept Lee from being alone. He was grateful for that.

“Good morning, Lee.” Didi didn’t need to turn around to know Lee was there by now. She’d gotten to know him rather well after living with him for almost a month.

“Morning, Di.” Lee murmured, voice soft as it always was in the morning. This had become a little tradition for Lee and Diaz. It felt special to the both of them. It was nice.

Didi turned around with two plates of food and a big smile. Lee had begun to love seeing Didi smile. Her smile was always so large and joyful. It was usually contagious but Lee wasn’t in the smiling mood that morning.

“How are you feeling?” Didi asked as she sat down, watching Lee carefully. She picked up on everything and Lee knew that lying was pointless when it came to her.

“I’ve been better,” Lee said casually, pulling his plate a little closer to him so he wasn’t having to stretch to reach it at all. “I’ve also been worse so I can’t really complain.”

Didi nodded, taking a small bite of her food. She had an odd sort of spark in her eyes that Lee wasn’t used to having directed at him. He’s seen her look at Carter with the worry she was holding back but he’d never been cause for concern before. It was making Lee rather uncomfortable, her eyes focused on him as he ate making him feel like he was being assessed. He didn’t like it at all.

“Thank you for breakfast,” Lee muttered, pushing his plate away. He’d barely eaten anything but Didi didn’t comment on that. He stood up and rubbed the back of his neck in an almost awkward gesture.

No words were exchanged for almost twelve minutes. Lee was quick when it came down to getting ready. He raced around quicker than he should have, feeling a couple of unpleasant tugs on his stitches as he scrambled to get out of the house quickly.

“Lee,” the voice was barely audible but it stopped him as he reached the front door. “Don’t take anything Carter says personally.”

Lee turned around to look at Didi. She was giving him another look of concern but this one wasn’t just for him. He could tell. She didn’t just care about him. She cared about Carter and she cared about their friendship.

“I won’t.” Lee meant for the words to sound reassuring but they came out uneven. Wobbly. He didn’t like the sudden displays of emotion. They were most inconvenient when it came down to lying about how he felt.

Didi nodded and then turned away. Lee knew the conversation was over and was sort of disappointed. It was as if she’d wanted to say more but had held back and Lee found himself rather curious as to what she could have been keeping from him as he made his way to work. It could have been a number of things but he’d never know because she had decided it was best that he didn’t hear the thoughts in her head. Lee felt a sudden anger rise up at the back of his throat to the point where he could taste it; it tasted metallic, like blood or pennies resting on his tongue. What did she think she was protecting him from by keeping secrets?

Lee stopped as he reached the building he’d dreaded seeing. What was worse was that Carter’s car was parked in its usual spot, one wheel haphazardly placed up on the curb of the street. Lee had made many jokes about how, if he was still a traffic cop, he’d have slapped a ticket on the car for its horrendous colour alone. He supposed he’d never be making those jokes again. The thought caused his stomach to drop and a knot to rise in his throat.

Lee shook his head and kept on walking.

\-------------------

Walking in and over to his desk had never made him feel so vulnerable. He’d guessed Carter had told at least a few of the people in the office what had happened. Silence had fallen as Lee had stepped in and no noise resumed until he had taken his seat. The next thing he knew, he could hear Carter walking out of Cole’s office, talking rather loudly about thanking her for something.

Carter walked past Lee, “accidentally” catching him on the back of the head with the files he was holding in his hand. Lee just closed his eyes and breathed. Getting angry would only make things worse. He didn’t feel like making things worse. Lee was already in his own personal little Hell. Carter hated him, he felt unwelcomed, Didi wasn’t around, his family was leaving him- again. It filled him with so much overwhelming sadness that he found himself slouching at his desk, unable to focus on the files he’d put in front of himself.

Lee refused to look up when he heard an obnoxiously loud cough coming from the direction of one James Carter. He didn’t look up in response to the next two coughs or even the piece of paper that landed on his desk. Carter could be rather petulant sometimes. There was no true reason for him to be acting so off with Lee, but he’d started now and he wasn’t about to admit that he was wrong in what he was doing.

The detective continued to stare at the closed files in front of him. He suddenly felt a lack of purpose. A lack of purpose? That was something he’d never felt before. Not even in his lowest of moments. When his parents had died his purpose had been to look after Kim, when Kim supposedly died his purpose was to bring the people who had done it to justice, when Kim had turned out to be alive and with the very people Lee had though had killed her his purpose became saving her and bringing her home to him. The complete lack of purpose, motivation and peace was wearing on him already.

Didi didn’t turn up for at least an hour and in that hour Lee had managed to do nothing but doodle on a scarp of spare paper that had been sticking out of a file. He didn’t know what he was drawing, his hand moving absentmindedly as he stared at the paper with unfocused eyes.

“Lee,” Didi tapped his shoulder, waving a hand in front of his face.

He looked up at her with a small ‘huh’ noise, eyes lazily dragging over to Carter before looking back at the slightly annoyed woman in front of him.

“I said ‘hello.’”

“Oh. Hello.” Lee looked back down at his piece of scrap paper, starting to doodle again. Wasn’t he supposed to be doing something? There was something nagging at him.

“So, this gang you told me about. The Blue Chain gang? I pulled out some files on them before coming here and there are a few statements in them about possible hideouts and where they’re planning on doing their next job. I’d never realised that they were so famous around here. The name rang a bell but I didn’t think it was that gang, if you get what I mean?”

Lee nodded, barely listening. Everything sounded muffled and everything looked blurry. The only thing that stood out was the snickering noise from Carter and, of course, Carter himself. It was a nightmare and Didi was obviously very aware of his lack of concentration. She placed the files down on his desk, patting them once before walking away. Lee glanced up for a second, catching the way Didi threw a distinctly dirty look at Carter and he replied with a confused expression.

He decided that he needed to get some work done. That meant reading through every file on his desk that had anything to do with the Blue Chain gang. Lee counted and it seemed he had two files to go through but they were overflowing. Maybe there had been a shortage of files while the evidence was being gathered? Lee didn’t quite know the reason behind the almost comically stuffed folders but he decided not to question it. Instead, he opened a file and began reading.

He read and read and continued to do so until his mind was full and the folder had nothing else to offer him. It was at this point -as he reached for the other folder- that Carter finally got bored of the way Lee was ignoring him. Lee pulled out and a pencil and began writing just as carter spoke up.

“Don’t act like you don’t see me.” Carter growled from across his desk, leaning forward ever so slightly.

Lee didn’t look up, continuing to write down information that wasn’t really information. He didn’t want to look up at his former partner. It made his chest ache in a way he wasn’t used to feeling. The last time he’d felt anything like it was when he’d been with Alex.

“Nothing? Of course you have nothing to say.” Carter got up and walked past Lee with nothing but a dirty look. As soon as Carter was out of the room, Lee dropped his pencil to the desk, followed by his head.

“He’ll come around.” Didi offered in a comforting tone as she walked over and sat on Lee’s desk.

Lee shook his head but didn’t look up. The way Lee was acting was actually quite sad to see. He was usually so collected and could recover from anything. He seemed genuinely wounded.

Didi looked around, finding there was no one around at that moment. She reached out and placed her hand gently on the back of Lee’s head. His shoulders naturally tensed up but he relaxed as she stroked his hair. It was odd to have him react like that. It was so out of character for him. Everything about him had been thrown off kilter and Didi had no way of fixing it.

“He’s right to be angry.” Lee whispered the words to no one in particular and Didi only just caught them.

“No. No he’s not. He’s being dramatic. There’s nothing to forgive you for but I’m sure, in his mind, he’ll forgive you soon. He cares about you.” Didi frowned as Lee shook his head. The words she hoped would comfort him were doing nothing and she was running out of ideas. “Come on, Lee. Cheer up a little. You and Carter are just going through a rough patch. It’ll fix itself. Like I said before, he cares about you.”

Lee pulled away from Didi’s hand and stood up, ready to leave.

“But he doesn’t seem to realise I care about him.” Lee didn’t know where he was leaving to but he had to get out of the office. He had to get out of any of the danger zones. That meant not going anywhere Carter would possibly end up going as well.

That also meant that he’d actually be going to put himself in the way of danger because he had nothing better to do with his time and because he needed to fix his own mistakes. His own mistakes consisted of letting Sean Cooper live as a free man because he himself had been injured badly by the gang leader. He knew where he could find them and he knew that he most definitely would. It wasn’t easy to hide from him.

___________________________________

Carter walked back into the office, finding that Lee had gone and that Didi was sat at his desk, glaring at him. He knew something was wrong but he offered up his usual charming smile before sitting back down at his own desk. Didi didn’t respond with anything. Not even an eye roll. He knew he was in dep shit at that point.

Didi stood up and walked over to him, staying silent for a moment. Before Carter could ask what she was doing, she’d slapped the back of his head hard.

“What in the ever loving fuck do you think you’re playing at, Carter?” She asked, tone furious.

“What the hell woman?” Carter was shocked, voice raised slightly as he rubbed the back of his head. “What was that for?”

“That was for how you’ve been treating Lee. He’s supposed to be your friend. How the hell has he warranted so much hostility from you? Where is this coming from?” Her eyes were alight with the sort of anger Carter had only seen in her a few times and it was honestly a little bit terrifying.

“What he did was he kept secrets from me. Important secrets about gangs and- and boyfriends.” Carter was hesitant to say the last part.

“Oh? I thought you were better than that. Just because he had a boyfriend- “

“No.” Carter cut her off. “How much weight do you lose from jumping to conclusions on the daily?” He fixed her a cold stare, jaw ticking slightly as he suppressed his sudden anger. “The gender of his last love interest doesn’t bother me, thank you very much. What bothers me is that he never… He never…” Carter trailed of, unsure of what to say but Didi suddenly looked like she understood, he expression one of sympathy, pity and horror.

“It’s because he never told you that he liked men, isn’t it?” She waited for Carter to nod before shaking her head, looking exasperated now. “Oh, Carter. You’re so stupid.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” He asked quietly, looking down at some blank paper on his desk to distract himself from everything else.

“Lee didn’t tell you because he didn’t want you to think any differently of him. He made me promise that I wouldn’t tell you any of the things he’s told me –“ Didi had walked herself into a mess now and her expression told Carter she knew that.

“What? What has he told you about this?” Carter asked, voice suddenly urgent as he sat up straighter and looked at her with the best puppy dog eyes he could give. He wasn’t sure why he was so interested but it felt important.

“I can’t…” Didi looked away from him, biting her lip.

“Please, Didi? C’mon. You can trust me. I won’t say anything to him.” He saw he was winning.

“Promise me,” Didi started, “that you won’t act any differently around him if I tell you.”

Carter nodded, holding up one hand and using the other to trace a cross over his heart. “You have my word.”

“Lee didn’t say anything to you about it because he was afraid it’d make his feelings -feelings towards you- too obvious.” She took in a deep breath, holding it as she waited for Carter to respond.

“Feelings towards me?” He asked, staring blankly at her before he realised what she meant. It was like a light had been shined onto every memory he had of Lee and him, everything seeming so much clearer and little things suddenly easy to understand.

When they had first met, when Lee hadn’t said a word, there had been a sudden shift in posture as he’d walked over, like someone attempting to reign in their feelings. When he had been told to go back to Hong Kong he had nodded and agreed because it was a direct order but, Carter realised, it had taken hardly anything to convince him to stay. The first smile he saw from Lee was directed towards him. Carter had caught a look sent his way more than a few times but he never realised that it wasn’t just a sideways glance. He remembered the way Lee had looked at him with so much relief after the bomb-jacket scare. He remembered, even over the loud noise, he’d heard Lee’s voice call out for him. Everything made so much more sense. All of it. Every glance, every ‘accidental’ brush of their hands as they reached for the same thing and the way Lee would clear his throat and look away afterward.

It all came together to form one big missing piece of the puzzle that was Lee.

There was a sudden feeling of overwhelming guilt making his stomach knot and his chest tight. All this time he’d been oblivious to just how much Lee was doing for him. He’d hidden his feelings out of respect for Carter’s own feelings and how comfortable he’d be. Why hadn’t the idiot just told him?

“Do you know where he went?” Carter asked, voice uncharacteristically heavy.

“You said- “

“Didi. I know him, alright? He’s going to do something stupid and it’s my fault. We need to find him. I need to find him. Didi, please?”

She looked at him for a moment before nodding and sighing. “Alright.”

Sneak peek of next chapter-

“What exactly are you hoping to achieve?” Cooper asked, folding his arms over his chest as he stared at the detective in front of him.

“I’m here to arrest you all.” Lee said simply, not struggling in the grip of the two men on either side of him.

“Oh? Is that so?” Cooper laughed, all his goons laughing with him. “Have you forgotten what happened last time you tried to capture me, detective?”

Lee swallowed hard, picturing the long scar that ran from between his collarbones and down to his diaphragm, jagged and slightly curved. He didn’t speak, eyes dropping to the scar on Cooper’s cheek.

“I knew you did.” He smirked, walking forward. The goons kicked at the back of Lee’s legs at a nod from their boss, shoving him to his knees.

Lee refused to look up at the man in front of him, sparking anger in the gang leader. A hand fisted in his hair, yanking his head back.

“You’ve made a very poor decision here, detective.” Cooper leaned down, face inches from Lee’s. “But thank you for becoming this evening’s entertainment.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long guys. Laptop decided to freak out and die for a while and then just... Magically fixed itself. We have no idea what it did but oh well. At least I'm back to writing.


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